Corporate security guard Allen Everett is worried that his company might be responsible for a rash of mysteriously gruesome deaths across the galaxy. But Everett is only a character in a novel by Alfred Finley. Fred Finley is struggling to cope with the possibility that he may have Huntington's, the disease that drove his mother to suicide. But Fred is only a character in a novel by Alphonse Walczynski. Alph works as a custodian by night and a struggling self-published author by day. When his successful younger sister gets engaged, he suddenly realizes how comparatively little his life has amounted to. In an effort to process this revelation, he begins work on an unwittingly self-exploratory novel about Fred's work on a self-exploratory novel about Everett. Meanwhile, hoping to hone his writing skills, Alph reluctantly allows his sister's fiancé to guide him on a journey of discovery that will supposedly help him inject more humanity into his novels. Through its three interconnected storylines, Alph Beta explores tragedy and comedy, creativity and cliché, and what it should mean to be human-whether you're a real human or a fictional one.